This invention relates generally to rack assemblies for use in domestic dishwashers, that is dishwashers intended primarily for use in homes. Such dishwashers normally include two racks to support items to be washed in such as dishes, glasses, bowls and cooking utensils for example. Often an upper rack is disposed close to the top of the washing chamber and is used to hold glasses, cups and other small items. Typically the lower rack is positioned near the bottom of the chamber and a considerable distance below the upper rack. This provides vertical clearance to place dishes and platters on edge and to place food preparation bowls and pots up-side-down on the lower rack for washing. Each rack normally is supplied with an array of spaced apart, generally vertical tines or fingers which support and separate the individual items. The optimum spacing between adjacent tines for supporting thin items like dishes is much less than for supporting thick items like mixing bowls and pans. Thus any fixed array of tines is less than optimum for all possible combinations of items to be washed.
There have been numerous suggestions for arrangements to provide adjustable tines for user flexibility. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,126,098, 3,269,548, 3,402,975, 3,752,322, 4,046,261 and 4,606,464 are examples of such suggestions.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,248 showed and described an arrangement with journals which hold a fence in the upper rack of a dishwasher so that the fence can be moved between a position with its projecting wires vertical and a position with its projecting wires generally horizontal. However, upper racks generally have their base wires bent at various locations along their lengths and the journals of this patent must be mounted at such a bend. In addition, the fence must be moved longitudinally to free the corresponding projecting wires before the fence can be rotated to move the projecting wires from their vertical to their horizontal positions.
The bottom racks of domestic dishwashers tend to be essentially planar with crossing longitudinal and lateral wires or rods forming an open mesh bottom wall. There is a need for a mechanism or assembly which is useful in such generally planar racks and which provides the user with ease of adjustment.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved rack assembly for a dishwasher including connectors that mount to the crossing rods of a planar rack and support a comb withprojecting fingers for simple rotational movement of the comb between a fingers vertical position and a fingers horizontal position.